Tag Archive:
bar exam

One topic of discussion that is sure to send shivers down the spine of any law student is the bar exam. The bar exam is the final academic hurdle on a prospective lawyer’s path to becoming licensed to practice law. It consists of a written portion, which covers different subjects depending on the jurisdiction, and a multiple-choice section, which is administered in virtually every jurisdiction (except Puerto Rico, oddly enough). The multiple choice section is called the “Multistate Bar Exam” or the “MBE.”

If there’s one thing that ev-ver-ry-body had an opinion on during my law school application process, it was the location where I should be going to school. Since even those outside the legal field can relate to this aspect of the law school decision, you’ll no doubt hear numerous opinions during your own application timeline. But the reasons for choosing a location can vary. Knowing the main reasons for choosing one location over another can highlight how important the location will be to your law school experience. Here are some location factors that will top any law student’s list:

The formal part of your legal education is book-ended by two exams. At the front, the LSAT and, at the end, the bar exam. While you’re probably familiar — or in the process of becoming familiar — with the LSAT, the bar exam is foreign to most applicants and law students. This post is going to compare and contrast the LSAT with the bar exam to help demystify what’s ahead.

I’m back to do another post on what it’s like studying for the bar exam. I’ll try to make this one a bit more practical (compared to my previous hissy fit about the whole concept). So here are some of my reflections.

The bar exam is a waste of time. I’m not sure why it exists. So here goes my rant against the bar exam.

Sophisticated parties like corporations, government departments, and law firms don’t need the bar exam to tell them who can handle their legal work. These organizations have both the self-interest and the ability to do their own vetting. In fact, pretty much everyone at these organizations is hired out of law school years before they sit for the bar exam. So who’s the bar exam supposed to protect?

Ugh, the bar exam. After the third year of law school, and closely following law review work, the bar exam is the next biggest drag in a young lawyer’s career. It’s supposed to be a minimum competency test, but making everyone cram the same general legal knowledge, no matter what kind of law they will go on to practice, only to never use this knowledge again, seems rather bizarre.

Last year, bar exam passage-rates fell to a near all-time low, leading some to question whether bar exam administration is a problem or whether schools are failing to do enough to prepare their students. Both states and schools are trying to respond to the issue by making changes. For example, New York just opted to

A. Now there’s another reason for George Mason University to reconsider naming it’s law school after Antonin Scalia, the first of course being that the acronym (at least originally) was ASSoL. NBC News

B. Yet more proof that rocking the LSAT pays dividends down the road, because, really, who wants to take the bar exam multiple times? Above the Law